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England ensures spot in final
By Ted Corbett
There are mathematical formulas by which Sri Lanka can overtake England in the remaining two qualifying matches, but it is so unlikely as to constitute a sporting miracle. Harmison will be grateful for this near certainty.
He completed a hat-trick of wretched first overs when he needed 11 balls that cost a total of 14 runs before he could hand the ball back to his captain Nasser Hussain: eyes down and looking thoroughly ashamed of himself as well he might.
Defeat might have made him think of applying for a different job. Ten minutes after that first miserable over he was taken off have bowled two overs for 24 and early in the following over the 6ft 6in quick slipped as he picked up a ball in the outfield and had to be helped to the dark comfort of the dressing room.
The report from the England camp was that he had a twisted ankle in a bucket of ice. If there was any justice he should have had his head in the bucket too. He is one of the England squad for the World Cup but his confidence must be in the ice bucket as well.
Only prolonged counselling will get him back into the mood required to bowl the ten overs of controlled pace that will be needed if England is to advance any distance in that competition. It has been a surprise to many people that England has persisted this wayward young fast bowler, known for his dislike of leaving home for travel anywhere beyond his native Durham.
In the two previous matches he also began with wides and no-balls. At Hobart he sent down ten wides in 30 balls to the left-hander Michael Bevan; against Sri Lanka two days later his first over had four wides, a no-ball, a four and a six over third man.
At this stage surely it must have been kinder to leave him in the dressing room however much England needed his searing pace to create a breakthrough. Incredibly, there was a second disaster which cost Sri Lanka the match.
Its captain Sanath Jayasuriya, heading for his third century in four games, was run out by a direct hit from Hussain as he scampered for the single that would have made him 100. It must have been a huge disappointment but Jayasuriya turned and headed for the dressing room without so much as a backward glance.
He had still scored 99 off 83 balls out of 158; but at that point defeat already loomed. After the Darren Lehmann incident Sri Lanka may feel it holds the moral high ground and tonight it completed its overs in reasonable time and cut back on those mid-pitch committee meetings that apparently annoyed Lehmann so much.
Jayasuriya had also insisted that he and Aravinda de Silva had taken only two — instead of the three already run — when Harmison fell so badly he was unable to return the ball. In the end that resulted in him missing a century.
Sportsmanship back on the cricket field? Surprisingly, but yes.
England's 279 had been set up by another fine innings from its opener Nick Knight who hit 88 in 110 balls before he was fourth out at 206 in the 41st. Another hurry-scurry innings from Alec Stewart brought 51 off 56 balls as he scored most of the 78 in the last ten.
At that point we knew that another of Sanath's big efforts would win the match and true enough he was at his best with nine fours to all parts of the ground and two sixes one straight to the biggest boundary on this huge ground.
There is no-one in world cricket to equal his power but in the late stages Kumar Sangakkara showed his own range of strokes. When he was out five wickets crashed for nine runs in 18 balls.
That means Sri Lanka's interest in this competition is finished and that its World Cup hopes have gone from thin to skeletal too.
The points table (read as country, played, won, lost, points (including bonus)): Australia, 6, 5, 1, 27; England 7, 3, 4, 19; Sri Lanka, 7, 2, 5, 14.
| ENGLAND | |
| M. Trescothick b Lakshitha | 39 |
| N. Knight c Sangakkara
| 88 |
| M. Vaughan c Vaas
| 28 |
| N. Hussain b Jayasuriya | 18 |
| A. Stewart b Lakshitha | 51 |
| I. Blackwell lbw b Vaas | 0 |
| P. Collingwood c Tillekeratne
| 18 |
| R. Irani (not out) | 13 |
| A. Caddick (not out) | 1 |
| Extras (lb-11, w-4, nb-8) | 23 |
| — — | |
| Total (for seven wkts.
| 279 |
| — — | |
| SRI LANKA BOWLING | ||||
| O | M | R | W | |
| Vaas | 10 | 0 | 54 | 2 |
| B. Fernando | 4 | 0 | 27 | 0 |
| Lakshitha | 9 | 0 | 42 | 2 |
| de Silva | 8 | 0 | 45 | 0 |
| D. Fernando | 9 | 0 | 52 | 2 |
| Jayasuriya | 10 | 0 | 48 | 1 |
| SRI LANKA | |
| M. Atapattu b Caddick | 12 |
| S. Jayasuriya (run out) | 99 |
| H. Tillekeratne c Stewart
| 9 |
| A. de Silva c Stewart
| 15 |
| M. Jayawardene c Vaughan
| 13 |
| K. Sangakkara c Blackwell
| 56 |
| R. Arnold c Blackwell
| 35 |
| C. Vaas c Collingwood
| 1 |
| P. Lakshitha c Trescothick
| 4 |
| B. Fernando (not out) | 1 |
| D. Fernando b Anderson | 0 |
| Extras (b-2, lb-4, w-8, nb-1) | 15 |
| — — | |
| Total (in 49.2 overs) | 260 |
| — — | |
Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-53, 3-119, 4-150, 5-158, 6-251, 7-254, 8-257, 9-260.
| ENGLAND BOWLING | ||||
| O | M | R | W | |
| Caddick | 10 | 0 | 35 | 4 |
| Anderson | 7.2 | 0 | 54 | 2 |
| Harmison | 2 | 0 | 27 | 0 |
| Irani | 10 | 0 | 36 | 1 |
| Collingwood | 3 | 0 | 23 | 1 |
| Blackwell | 10 | 0 | 44 | 0 |
| Vaughan | 7 | 0 | 35 | 1 |
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